Libya: Col Gaddafi damns the 'rats' as he clings to power

A wild and desperate-looking Col Muammar Gaddafi staged a dramatic defence of
his collapsing 41-year rule last night, appearing on state television to
damn the “rats” conspiring against him and to insist he would die a martyr
on Libyan soil.

For more than an hour, Col Gaddafi hurled insults at the television cameras. He said he would defy America, superpowers, “men with turbans and long beards” and anyone else who tried to end his revolution.

He said his opponents were trying to plunge Libya into civil war and to turn it into an Islamic state, or an Afghanistan or a Somalia.

Occasionally reading from his “Green Book” and shaking his fore-finger at the camera, he threatened swift, violent and all-out retribution to those who continued to oppose him Frequently raising his voice to a scream, he said he had proved Libya was leader of the African, Asian and Latin American continents in their fight against imperialism. He would not now leave the country for which he said his grandfather and many others had given their lives.

“Muamar Gaddafi is the leader of a revolution,” he shrieked. “Muammar Gaddafi has no official position to resign from. He is the leader of the revolution forever.

Col Gaddafi made his appearance after a first meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the crisis in Libya.

Some protesters and diplomats who had defected from his regime were calling for the UN to impose a no-fly zone to prevent a repeat of the air attacks ordered by the regime on Monday night.

There was no immediate indication that the UN was likely to move beyond a condemnation of the killings of innocent protesters, however, and even that looked likely to be blocked by Russia and China.

As he spoke, forces loyal to Col Gaddafi seemed to have control over the situation in the capital Tripoli, with state television earlier showing footage of a pro-regime rally.

Residents were said to be hiding inside their homes after attacks from the air and from snipers on roofs on Monday night. There were reports of “massacres” in a number of districts, with Human Rights Watch giving a figure of 62 dead in the city.

Worst hit were those who attended an anti-government march in Tripoli on Monday afternoon. “Many people were killed by the explosions and bullets,” a 22-year-old student who attended told The Daily Telegraph.

Foreign nationals leaving the country gave dramatic accounts of seeing bodies on the streets and burning buildings. Residents insisted many of the attackers were the African mercenaries Col Gaddafi is said to have hired to defend his regime to the end.

“They carry machine guns and machetes,” one said. “If any of them are caught they are killed pretty much immediately.”

There were also claims that whites, believed to be East Europeans, were among the mercenaries. Col Gaddafi has maintained good relations with first the Soviet Union and its Cold War allies and more recently with Russia.

Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, warned that the wave of unrest in the Arab world risked bringing fanatics to power.

Most of the east of Libya appeared to be beyond Col. Gaddafi’s reach, however.

“We have taken control of Benghazi,” Mouftah Al Areydi, a resident, said. “The youth are outside cleaning up and we will protect our region.”

Professor Tim Niblock, an expert on Libya at Exeter University, said good sources had told him that Suleiman Mahmoud al-Obeidi, an eastern army commander, had defected.

Elders of one of the country’s most important tribal groups, the Warfalah, also went over to the opposition, issuing a statement denouncing “the hideous crimes of Gaddafi and his regime”.

Around the world, diplomats said they were no longer representing the regime, with the ambassadors to the United States, India and Bangladesh and lower-ranking staff members of other missions all joining in the condemnation of their leader.